caincando1, yes power boats would still be here, just like baseball would still be here if Babe Ruth( although he is credited for bringing it back to americas game from the white sox scandal) never played but would be alot less interesting:p

Matty

If the man played in some other sandboxes or had dealing with the good and the bad guys at the same time...........who cares! The man did for powerboating what Henry Ford did for the auto industry. I run a 30 year old Cigarette and 'comfortably' do things with my boat that I would be scared to death to do with some of the "performance" boats being built today. I haven't read 'Speed Kills' yet, I did ask Santa for it though :D. But, if he did the things being discussed on this thread, I still say - WHO CARES! My $.02 - He is and will always be the KING of the powerboat industry.

Actually it was Bob Hammond who brought the vee bottom hull to the masses with his Glastron hulls.... Aronow , at best, built a handful of boats for quirky rich racers, mostly in and around Florida. Aronow built a few hundred boats all told. Hammond built thousands. Aronow's boats were neither revolutionary nor particularly unique, and he basically dissolved as soon as speeds exceeded 80 mph and catamaran designs arrived. His awkward attempts at cats showed the true limitations of his marine design knowledge (cut some old hull in half and spread it with a tunnel).

Aronow has two claims to fame in my opinion:

1. He was a heck of a racer, although he never saw much over 70-75 mph in competition, and , in reality, wasn't as good as Bill Sirois, or Odell Lewis.

2. He was the best self promoter in the history of the sport. Through the efforts of his trusty henchman, John Crouse, he managed to garner about five times as much publicity as anyone else for any race he was in..... let alone won........ Believe it or not, he was not the only one who finished races with a torn shirt and bloody arms...but you'd never know it, from the media reports of the time.

I met him a few times........ and he was big, pushy, and clever. His whole demeanor was about power and charisma..... give the devil his due, but his actual talent and "contributions" were much more about sizzle than steak.

T2x

Interesting point of view............

I got 2 copys of SPEED KILLS for sale $25.00 each.

e-mail [email protected]

Mike

I do paypal for payment -free shipping

Brian, The original Bar on the water is gone, but there is still a Fort Apache Bar and Grill. If I remember right it's west of 188th St. in a Strip Mall. I think it's off the street that goes behind that big Grocery Store.....I wen't in had a beer looked at the pictures on the wall and left.......


The deal with your Mom had me going!!!! I was thinking "Brian is kinda tall and has dark hair, but I have never seen you frown like (Don did) in all his pictures or at least the one with the ripped shirt!!!"
That was Funny!!!!

Mike,
You've got mail.:) What is Paypal?
Call me (202)224-5499

Craig

I've been to the Apache Bar & Grill on the backside of the mall. Actually that's where I met Steve /OSO. Funny he was sitting at the bar and I saw his shirt with the OSO logo. I went on and on telling him about the site and he just laughed. Wasn't the picture of Mr Aronow with the shirt ripped from racing John Crouse on foot. Aronow tripped and fell? Funny I got you guy's on the trumped up story - haha - BH

Maybe I should re-phase, Henry Ford comparison was for what he did for the sport, not the production line or quantities of boats. I also would agree with your post above.

You have mail.